I figured I'd look that song up since nobody in their right mind could possibly praise the Great Leap Forward and I'm struck by this:
"Mixing pop and politics/he asks me what the use is"
Dillinger Four stole that line and uses it in a song.
Mixing pop and politics
He asks me what the use is
I'm not into making excuses
And I'll die the day I find I'm ****ing useless - The Great American Going Out Of Business Sale
Anyway, just goes to show you that other left-wing bands picked up on the lyric.
I will say this. I do not understand what Bragg is trying to say with his song. I'm so incredulous that anybody could support the Great Leap Forward and sing about "progress" so unironically that surely irony must be in play, right? A mischievous distance from the organizers and the party?
From Bragg himself, realizing exactly how totalitarianism plays in the U.K. and West.
"I have a lot of respect for Marxists and the contributions they've made to our tradition, and I think we have a lot of things to learn from what Marx was saying, but the language of Marxism, the language with which we conducted politics in the 20th century, don't mean **** all to anybody anymore. One of the problems that we had with it was that people associated it with a totalitarian idea that was in Eastern Europe, so it was easy to dismiss. Now, that's all over. My role, and I've been trying to do this with Occupy Wall Street and the stuff I've been writing on my blog in the last couple of weeks, is to encourage them not to embrace the simplicities of Marxism. There's an opportunity to create a new and passionate political idea that is not tainted by totalitarianism, that doesn't have the shadow of the gulag over it. It's your job to do that!"
I think just clipping that one line of the song removes the context.
Posting all the lyrics might be overkill, but here they are:
It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel Castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment so he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her, but he thinks that he should warn her
That the Third World is just around the corner
In the Soviet Union, a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That Dr Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle
In the Cheese Pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs and mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the 15 fame-filled minutes of the fanzine writer
Mixing pop and politics, he asks me, what the use is?
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the Great Leap Forwards
Jumbo sales are organised and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Well, here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From Top of the Pops to drawing the dole
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
If no one seems to understand
You, start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just a T-shirt away
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards